We might have avoided the 14-hour chassé-croisé and its memorable bumper-to-bumper bouchon* at the Croatian border had we taken this cheery "pointu"* in place of our Citroën… (photo taken last week, on the Istrian island of Cres).
chassé-croisé (shah-say-krwah-zay) noun, masculine
1. comings and goings
2. a period of heavy, two-way traffic
3. cross-translation
4. (there seems to be a fourth usage of chassé-croisé in ballet… would anyone like to add their two-centimes' worth in the comments box? Thanks in advance!)
Audio File & Example sentence: Hear my daughter pronounce these French words:
Download Chasse-croise
LE GRAND CHASSE-CROISE. C’est reparti. Après la vague des juilletistes, les aoûtiens ont pris le relais. The great crossing. Here we go again. After the wave of July vacationers, August vacationers have taken over. —L'Humanité .
A Day in a French Life…
by Kristin Espinasse
Our dog and our grapevines are about to burst: deliverance is in the air, if not in the soul… My worrisome mind darts back and forth, from our big-bellied Braise… to the dust… to the scorched pelouse*… to email and a full in-box.
Having just returned from a two-week roadtrip, I see our home is cloaked in a fine sheet of poussière* so that the interior now reflects the exterior in color and scope: ghost-town taupe. (How's that for a new entry on the color wheel? It is good to be creative at times like this, even if that means naming a new nuance.) Whereas one year ago our garden was teeming with colorful wildflowers, now, only clumps of parched grass cover the ever assoiffé* earth below.
Speaking of at times, it is always time to look on the bright side: the grapevines, despite la petite canicule,* are thriving, and so is our golden retriever, Braise — many thanks to Uncle Jacques, who looked over her as a mother would her own child (my brother-in-law did not feel good about leaving Braise cooped up and alone all day… so he took her to work, in Avignon, at le chantier.* Man and delighted dog began their workday at the café, ending it at the brasserie for a beer. Jacques tells me Braise met many admirers and that our phone number was given out to several interested parties who learned that puppies were on the way.
Now that we've looked at the bright side, and have remembered to be reconnaissants,* it is time to be creative about evacuating nervous energy. Vacation should have taken care of restless nerves, but nothing can quite still September….
September represents, among so many other things, the formidable rentrée — the busy, back-to-school rush to get the kids settled in school–and stocked up with an absurd amount of "equipment" (I still don't understand three-quarters of the vocabulary on the school supplies list that the teacher hands out each fall).
September also happens to be the month that all of my friends, family, and acquaintances were born or married (the reader will please excuse the exaggeration–exaggeration being just another symptom of the malaise that is the theme of this letter). There is the need to acknowledge, via cadeau* or card, these special dates… or at least not forget them!
And September is the month when new readers sign up to this French word server, and the pressure is on to compose. Though writing for longtime readers feels like sitting around the fireside chatting in our pajamas — the thought of a new reader has me rushing to my closet, rooting around for my wedding dress and tiara. Will the dress still fit? Is it too formal for the occasion? Can't we pitch protocol all just hang out in our pantoufles* and be ourselves?
All this makes me anxious, sends me swiftly into three-ring circus mode in which I feel both the funambule* and the freak: the CONTROL freak walking on the tight rope otherwise known as "The Balanced Life". Step one millimeter to the left …or a catastrophic centimeter to the right… and the world–along with its freaked out funambulist–will flip! This is the bungled belief system that I can't help but get tangled up in this time of year — the belief that I must control all of the variables — or be eaten alive. Meantime, it is, in reality, not the variables — but the nerves themselves — that are eating me alive whilst "the variables"–that happy-go-lucky go-with-the-flow group of elements, incarnate, are sitting over there in a cafe corner, shaking their heads, slurping their beers, sideline philosophers who have figured out, some time ago, that sitting still and taking time to smell the beer vapors can be good.
Nothing doing! There's no use in trying to mimic those vacuous variables, busy upending their beer cans, butts bound to the bistro chair — for this time of year, aka "September" (have you noticed, dear reader, that I am no longer abiding in August… but already exist in shell-shocked September — yet another symptom of this malady which is the theme of today's letter), for September is also the harvest month! There are the harvesters, who will soon arrive: friends and family interested in the evolution of our grapes and in offering a helping hand. Now to learn to delegate, to let go of these reins which I tend to wrap tight around our home and our family. If vacation taught me one thing, it is that the world continued to spin without my slapping it into motion with a whip.
In spite of the still spinning sphere, nommé Earth, dust managed to land while we were away on vacation, but what, dear reader, is dust? Who cares about dust? What's the big deal about poussière?!!! Will you still like me if you come over to my house and see piles of it (can dust be piled? OK, how about piles of clothes, then?)
After all, this is where my mistake lies: in still caring so much about what others think… that I'll let go of my own rules…
instead of standing strong beneath them…
lest
they
sink.
* * *
Post note: Now if I can only get past the poop (Ha! Try to control IT) — but that'll be in October, by my calculations (at which point the puppies will need to be potty trained)? For now, I'll try to keep it in the day… Chaque jour suffit sa peine.* I'll start by delegating to the dog. We'll go from there… Wish us luck.
And a big "PS" here: today I will also need to delegate to you. Please add the missing definitions to the following vocabulary words in the comments box, and, while you're there, be sure to share your response to today's story or to tell us a story of your own. Mille mercis d'avance!
French Vocabulary:
le bouchon (speaking of "bumper to bumper")
le pointu
la pelouse
la poussière
assoiffé(e)
la petite canicule
le chantier
reconnaissant
le cadeau
la pantoufle
funambule
la haleine
chaque jour suffit sa peine
***
"Macramé and Madras" on the Croatian island of Cres. There are so many photos to show you from our Mediterranian escape. See them soon at Cinéma Vérité!
Shopping:
Mastering The Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child
Paris, Je T'Aime: Stories of Love from the City of Love (see film clips here)
French soap: The practical and very neat Provendi revolving soap fixtures have adorned public school washrooms throughout France for years
Music: C'est L'amour: Romantic French Classics
Discover more from French Word-A-Day
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Croatia must be the new ‘hot spot!’ Seems like the whole world vacations there. Don’t worry about the dust…only you notice!
Chere Kristin – welcome home, so happy to read your story this morning. Do, do please stop worrying about your writings…les histoires sont parfaits! Comme une parfait au chocolat, parfait, chere one. Ah, the worrying, the control, the wild times of September that seem overwhelming…you will do it and do it well, jour a jour, et n’oublier pas respirer! (Yoga teachers are always saying ths!) Trouvez votre souffle, aw heck, do you need your own private yoga teacher for a month, hummmm…?
I had said “no” to a Sept/Oct trip to France, but little by little the tug is pulling at me. Your market picture last week really jolted me out of my Stateside complacency!
Dear Kristin. Of course we’ll still love you hurriedly bobbling amongst your laundry and dust!! Sounds like your house and mine are exactly the same (feel any relief?), and so is this balancing act of trying to be everything to everybody. But it always does fall into place , so pull out that French “Joie de Vivre”, know that your family and friends adore you, and remember to breathe!! September will be what it will be. Welcome home.
Cristin — my goodness, my day has just started and already I feel exhausted from reading your post. I don’t know much French, but I do know how to say “soit sage”! Take it easy! Remember some Bible verses about lilies of the field and sparrows and taking no care of the morrow.
Jim
PS it’s a lot easier for me to advise you than to take my own advice.
Kristin: I felt caught up in a whirlwind of emotion while reading your post this morning; a Whirling Dervish let loose in my brain swirling dust motes and cobwebs every which way like a contained mini-explosion of lost thoughts and reflections. I am going to be a part of ‘September in Provence’ this year and my husband and I did marry on a beautiful day in September many years ago. That day in September brings us to you now. Will we be swept away a la rigueur of this all consuming month while we’re sharing the life, breath and dusty terrain of its existence with all of you who absorb its beauty and harshness on a daily basis? Yes, we want to be a part of it, if only for one week…..for now.
Welcome Home to chaos and love….
I am hoping we get to meet one another in September.
Chassé croisé in ballet means go to places, passing partner.
Dear Kristin,
Où tourner la tête? Your vision of September is a bit daunting…
Here you are, caught into a typical (and so well described) “malaise” provoked by your return from holiday and the worries of a very full agenda in September. Relying on your sensible day-to-day organisation and your good sense of humour, you’ll cope very well.
There will be some priorities to fit into each day, the pleasure of doing – and having done- this and that… and I’m sure you won’t let trivial matters like dust and pile of clothes govern your life!
“Un jour à la fois”! (one day at a time) … with an eye on the calendar which is telling you today that there are 14 more days before the pretty pretty month of September…, “la rentrée des classes” (back to school)… and of course, the big annual event of “les vendanges”!
Dear Braise,
I think you will quite naturally take one day at a time… So delighted to hear the marvellous Oncle Jacques looked so well after you when the family was on holiday.
Indeed, “A chaque jour suffit sa peine” = “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”
I wish you all “une très bonne journée”.
Translation of the other words will follow.
Hello again!
– le bouchon (speaking of “bumper to bumper”) = traffic jam, tailback
– le pointu = pointed-bowed fishing boat (with flat bottom)
– le chantier = building site, construction site
– le cadeau = present, gift
– la pelouse = lawn
– la poussière = dust
– la canicule = scorching heat, heatwave
– les pantoufles (fem) = slippers
– l’haleine (fem – not “la” because here, we have a “H muet” / mute H) = breath
– le/la funambule = tightrope walker
– être assoiffé = to be very thirsty
– être reconnaissant = to be grateful
forgot to say I love the reflections in the water… and the vibrant colours of the boat.
Reading the 2 words “Mediterranean escape” under the last photo, I guessed you had a great time and came back with tons of photos! One slice of “Cinéma Vérité” might not been enough for the selected Saturday pictures (?)
might not BE…. sorry!
Hello, Kristin, so much of what you write about September sounds so familiar! Console yourself with the fact that you don’t have to add a 40-hour-a-week job and two-hour commute to everything you have described.
Worried about dust? I came across this thought some years ago, and have even quoted it to friends: “If you want to see the house, give me some notice. If you want to visit me, just come on over.”
Everything will work out. Every year, I get a bad case of nerves with all the Christmas pressure, and I’ve finally learned to say, “Christmas always comes.” Similarly, one can say, “September will work out,” too.
Bonne Chance!
Chere Kristen, I’m quite content to sit around in my pantouffle, look at the poussiere, take in the haleine of the puppies, and enjoy a morning with you! Merci! Candy in Colorado
Welcome home Kristi! Sounds like you will have a whirlwind of activity next month.
Lots of poussiere/dust here due to sunny days, wide open doors and dogs running in and out of the house. The poussiere is quite evident on the gloss black painted buffet which has to be dusted daily. But everyone is enjoying the summer. Better stock up on newspaper now in case Braise doesn’t housebreak the pups on her own.
Thank you for sharing your dust with me. I feel much better now, thanks to your encouragements!
Marianne: thanks for sharing that quote. It’s a keeper!
Newforest: mille mercis for the definitions and correction — always helpful and needed. RE the photo blog: you’re right on: there will be a few posts as there are so many pictures! Thanks also for your kind words re today’s story.
Martina: good idea about stocking up on newspaper. I hadn’t thought of that. I am so glad that I didn’t give away all those old sheets. Boy, they have come in handy as we go about changing Braise’s bed twice-daily (and I thought Jackie O., who reportedly changed her children’s sheets *daily*, was overdoing things. Our Braise is surely a bourgeois!)
I feel blessed to be beyond the September school rush era, etc., but sympathize with you. Be assured that, with time, the investment in the children, the house, the extended family, the puppies, le vin dentelle, will be blessed memories and you will be glad you withstood all those Septembers…..may even miss them! Really!
Noting your book links: I got rid of my original copy of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” decades ago when our diets changed. Now I find the originals offered on ebay for many $$$$$. I am just finishing Child’s book “My Life in France” but as a vegetarian I find I have to skip a good many paragraphs! (I do believe I recall mention of frog ravioli! Egad!) But the peek into France just following WWII is especially interesting.
Dear Kristin,
I am always so happy to hear that I am not the only one who rushes the clock, and who starts with the worries before it is time. Summer ended for me the day it started…no kidding. And as it is really starting to wrap up I am terribly annoyed with my friends who are cheering the approach of Christmas. Yikes.
Glad you were away vacationing even if you returned home to poussiere but like you said there is Braise and all the good stuff ahead. I would be eating grapes right this moment if I were there.
xoxo
As an anxious wreck constantly working for perfection in Sept. and at holiday times, I’ve adopted a new mantra from the film “Julie & Julia: Never apologize!
Years ago, my father,observing how anxious I was at Christmas dinner/houseguest time, told me, Just do your exercises.
Which exercises? He gave 2 great, Gallic-style shrugs of his shoulders. It really works!
Bless you with children to raise in the French culture! I think a “melange” of the French and USA culture might be the perfect one…some parts relaxed and others pretty solid. Go for it! Your philosophy is wonderful and very well thought through. I look forward to hearing how well these kids do with their life! You are doing very well and should enjoy your success. We do!!!
Merci, Allison
Speaking of Julie and Julia,(I adored the film)mon mari decided that I should make some boeuf bourguignon when he found out that I had the book. So I did – beaucoup de travail!
It took two days. Heureusement, Everyone felt that the result was worth the trouble.
I understand your post vacation stress. Have a glass of wine and then get busy. Also, put on your favorite music while you are getting busy.
It’s wonderful to learn of your safe return Kristin. And thanks for the introduction to Cres.
This is a rhetorical question, but I wonder if you’ve read ‘On the Shortness of Life,’ by Lucius Seneca? Live well, behave honourably, and study philosophy:
http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/seneca_younger/brev_e.html
my Ballet dictionary says Chasse-Chased. A step in which one foot literally chases the other foot out of its position; done in a series. Croise-Crossed. One of the directions of epaulement. The crossing of the legs with the body placed at an oblique angle to the audience. The disengaged leg may be crossed in the front or in the back.
Kristin:
My husband and I got married in Dec when we were living on our sailboat, “Escapade.” I just wanted to comment on your photos. Both my husband and I are photographers, and we both enjoy viewing your photos. You have a “good eye,” as we say when we see an image that gets our attention. I also enjoy reading your French Word-A-Day entries.
Angie George, fotogypsy
I had to laugh at your admission of not knowing many of the supplies on your kids back-to-school lists. I’m American, in America and learned that there is such a thing as “twistable crayons” when going through my daughter’s back-to-school list.
Whatever happened to ripping the paper off the crayon as the point got lower? Now they can be “twisted” (aka self-sharpened).
Welcome home! I enjoyed reading the comments offering support/wisdom and loved the comment about making blessed memories. It set me to wonder why this is at times difficult to see when we are in the midst of it…can’t see the forest for the trees? Flowers for the dust? Take deep breathes of August air and know that you are loved!
Wishing you joy in September’s journey…live from your heart, share freely your beautiful smile and let yourself be buoyed by the warmth of friends and family…God and puppy breath will take care of the rest!
Kristin- I know your “pain”; I’m also feeling anxious and a bit frazzled (and teary-eyed) at the thought of September now that my oldest daughter is leaving for college.
Betty- how funny, I too tried out boeuf bourgignon after the movie, as a send off dinner for my daughter. Trop de travail. As the movie stated, “In America, housewives don’t have domestic help”…so this housewife won’t be making recipes like THAT anymore.
Douglas: thank you for the info on “On The Shortness of Life”. I am reading Seneca’s words now; so glad you shared the link!
Betty: I imagine these time will be missed too! Thanks for the reminder.
To my dear Stacy in the NW: I’m touched by your thoughts.
Leslie: here’s a hug and bon courage to you and your daughter.
Angie: I love your photos, too!
To borrow Stacy’s words, thanks, everyone, for such “wonderful support/wisdom”! And thanks for the ballet info and more.
Kristin! Lovely to hear you back again! I am sure that amongst us all there are plenty of spare “pantoufles” ( love that word…I keep thinking of souffles on your feet!) to hand around and welcome your new readers…such good taste they have coming over to share in your wonderful column!
PS Just open the windows…the September summer breeze will blow away the dust!
PPS Big hug to Mother Braise! Max and Jackie must be excited about the new puppies!!
Kristin, get back into August my friend! 🙂
I don’t judge your malaise, don’t get me wrong! I’m suffering from the same thing, believe me! But I’m trying so very hard to keep my calendar in the now and not fret about September. I am starting a new school in the worst economy ever (in my lifetime anyway), and the news reporters are asking me, “What are you going to do if you don’t have enough students sign up? What if you don’t have all the supplies you need? What about all the public schools that are failing; how do you think YOU are going to succeed?”
I said, “We will start without the supplies, we’ll start even if we don’t have enough students, and we’ll just bootstrap it. If we have paper and pencils and a few good books, we can do it. What do you think they did a hundred years ago?” Oh boy. September is going to be very interesting, and I am so thankful it is still August! “Our God shall supply all our needs” comes to mind at this moment.
Blessings upon August, prayers for a miraculous September,
Jennifer
Hi Kristin,
Good luck for September. Remember, breathe in, breathe out…
I can relate to this, our new school year starts at the end of January just after we have finished a frantic year in December and had Christmas and it’s hot and aaargh! So yes I get how you feel. But dust, pah! I like the comment above from Marianne, “if you want to see me, just come on over”.
Take care
Chris